Shaping Our Lives On Atlantis 1

Hopes For The Future, And Memories Of The Past

by Bethany

URL: http://www.stargateslash.com/asb/bethany6/hopesfor.php
Summary: Daniel is working in Atlantis, having followed Jack there, while Jack's in stasis after contracting an illnes/sustaining an injury/getting an infection - Whatever the hell is wrong with him..!!

Daniel wandered around Atlantis... Sure, he had a job to do, but occasionally, very occasionally, there was time to just go exploring..!

Truthfully, he missed Jack already, just like he knew he would, but it wasn't as though they were over...

He smiled as he looked out of a window, and realised for the millionth time, that he was standing in The City Of The Ancients... He hadn't even been able to find this place when he was Ascended..! He could hear Jack's voice, and almost imagined he saw Jack's reflection behind him in the window... He prayed it wasn't a ghost.

"Priscilla would be really proud of you!" Jack was saying, and no, he didn't mean Priscilla, Queen Desert, as in the movie, because Oma never tried to rule, like Amaunet, who had trapped Sha're for so many years... Jack called Oma Priscilla because he read in a Newspaper once that the name Priscilla meant 'Ancient'..!

Daniel smiled, and tried not to cry, in the here and now...

He had followed Jack to The City Of The Ancients, when Jack was frozen, yet again, because of an illness caught on a Mission... He wasn't even meant to go on Missions anymore..!

But now, like McKay's best friend, Doctor Beckett, had been until recently, Jack was frozen until a cure could be figured out... Daniel went to the room in which he was kept, and talked to Jack, the way he knew McKay had to Beckett... But things had worked out for Beckett. He was up and about, working now... The team had managed to halt the orders for him to be sent home... For fear of who would, perhaps, try and experiment on him next... The man had already suffered enough at the hands of Michael The Wraith... Now, Beckett was with friends, proving that he could still do his job, but Daniel was still rather suspicious of Woolsey; thinking that him being sent here to replace Sam was probably, in no small part, to keep an eye on everyone... Himself and Jack included.

Daniel was learning to work with Woolsey, learning that there was, it honestly seemed, (and Daniel hoped and prayed that this was genuine) another side to the man... Yes, Daniel had a lot to forgive him for, after the Prior incident, but Daniel was, essentially, still, a man of peace, and he had learnt that there was truth in the old adage of; Don't shoot the Messenger...

Daniel often wondered, as the months wore on, had he done right? Should he have just let Jack go? Maybe, there really was a Heaven, where he could be reunited with Charlie... Jack had, in a way, let him go once, when he Ascended... But Daniel found that, despite his prayers and hopes, he didn't have enough faith to do the same for Jack... He just held on to the hope that this was what he was meant to be doing for Jack; that his prayers would be answered, and the man he loved would be well again...

They'd had to be very discreet about their relationship, obviously... And nothing about that fact had changed, even now... Even when Daniel had come to another Galaxy to be with Jack... Well, Jack had done that once, too, during the Prior incident Daniel was still learning to forgive Woolsey for having any part in...

There were other people here in their situation. Daniel knew that McKay and Beckett were more than just best friends, and he knew that Major Lorne also liked members of his own gender... The man was very quiet about it, but even in a City of this size, there were rumours, jokes about the Major (or 'The Fox', as he was known,) playing games of Twister with the new recruits... But thankfully, the jokes were affectionate, not attacking, and Lorne did have the respect of those he worked with, and those he commanded...

Daniel didn't know what the future held, but he did know that Jack being so ill, was not how or why he'd ever envisioned coming to, or working in Atlantis, for any period of time... He didn't want it to be this way... But in the time since their arrival, they'd been accepted into this Community; Jack's recovery was important to everyone, not just his secret love, and Daniel did, though he had a horrid suspicion the dream was not realistic, have thoughts of them settling into working here, once, Please, God, if you're up there in your Heaven, Jack had fully recovered...

For a few moments more, Daniel continued to look out of this, one of thousands, of the big city's windows, onto its view of the sparkling, glittering, gorgeous sunlit blue sea, and then, he turned away, and went back to work, thinking briefly, that tonight would be another night alone... His view out of the window then would almost be like the golden, glistening view of rows upon rows of street lamp lights on a Christmas night, as he would be looking out from his quarters, in a few hours time, and then, retiring to a bed, empty but for him, because Jack was all alone in that other room... As Daniel now, rounded the corner, heading back to the Labs and his Office, he thought of Jack's frozen face, that he would see looking down to him later, when he dropped by to say goodnight, as he always did...

The End

Next: Evan Lorne's New Date